


Sometimes arrows miss and lead us to the truth

by CoinToYourWitcher



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bath Sharing, Bedsharing, Dubious Consent, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Fairies don’t wear underwear, Force bond elements, Hypnotism, Interspecies Relationship(s), Jedi mind trick reference, Kinda, Kylo is a lumberjack, Leia and Luke look 25 yrs old, Loss of Virginity, Rey is a Fae, Rey is feral, Reylo - Freeform, Sex in the woods, Sexy fairy deals, Trying to get your dad to stop talking on the phone so you can have sex with a fairy, childlike amorality, fairy lore, fertility discussion, unintentional cruelties
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:21:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 18,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25051615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoinToYourWitcher/pseuds/CoinToYourWitcher
Summary: Rey is a fae. Ben is a lumberjack.The Spotify Playlist
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 102
Kudos: 180
Collections: Reylo Hidden Gems, Summer Fic Exchange 2020





	1. I'll find some way through to you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tmwillson3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tmwillson3/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **I'll find some way through to you  
>  Sometimes arrows miss  
> And lead us to the truth  
> So take your time  
> I'll help you slowly**
> 
> Bows by Covey

[ ](https://ibb.co/N9dMHGK)

“Asshole,” Rey muttered to herself, watching the dark-haired human operate his machine.

It’s claw grabbed a pine, it’s saw sliced through the trunk, the claw released it’s grip, and the tree fell, it’s branches stripped on the way down. Then the claw tossed it in a pile next to the river where it would be floated down to the logging camp. 

So efficient. A one hundred-year-old tree. Gone in ten seconds.

She knew his name was ‘Kylo’ because they called his name over the radio several times a day. The radio was loud as well. Not nearly as bad as his big bulldozer machine, but it was crackly and annoying just the same.

He blinked when he saw her, shutting down the machine and picking up the radio receiver.

“Uh..a _young woman_ is coming towards me? Did we know people lived out here?” he said quickly.

“Is she pretty?” came a joking reply.

He didn’t respond, seeing Rey stop next to his machine.

“You can answer him,” Rey said, giving Kylo a smile.

He swallowed, raising the receiver back to his mouth. “Yes.” Then switched off his radio before his friend could speak again.

“Can I help you? Are you lost or...maybe doing a photo shoot or something?” He asked, nervously looking around. 

But it was just them and the forest. There wasn’t anyone for miles and miles. His kind were back at the logging camp, where he’d come by boat today, and her colony was a three day’s walk.

Rey didn’t answer, simply biting her lip, letting the glamour do its job, hitting him with wave after wave of intoxicating pheromones at close range, until he stumbled, half-drunk out of the machine. 

Maybe she had overdone it.

“My name’s Rey,” she said, looking down at him, sitting on his knees, swaying slightly. “And you’re Kylo, right?”

He was pressing his palms to his forehead now, looking like she’d taken him straight past the high and right into paranoia.

  
  
“Sorry, I’m new to all this,” she said, sitting down in front of him and crossing her legs. “I imagine I’m a bit like one of those baby snakes that doesn’t know how much venom to use. Deadlier, the younger they are.”

Waiting for him to calm down, she rubbed his blue-jeaned leg, comfortingly. “Do you need anything? Water? Human food?”

He chuckled then, watching her hand on his leg. 

Oh, she should have just said ‘food’. But the Fae always referred to that packaged crap from grocery stores as ‘human food’, and it was a hard habit to break. 

She’d only spoken to a few humans before: hikers, the children the colony was raising--because their human parents were doing a shit job of it, park rangers.

His eyes looked a little less glazed, so she started talking. “This is _my_ forest. It was given to me a year ago on my third birthday and I’m technically supposed to kill you for taking what is mine.”

He tried to speak, his eyebrows knitting, but she held a finger to his lips, leaning closer, close enough to smell the cotton plants that were shredded to make his denim shirt. He sat back on his butt, his legs to either side of her as she inched right up to him, until she could see every beauty mark on his face, until he was looking at her almost cross-eyed.

“Shhh, just listen, because I’m not going to kill you. I don’t think you’re _all_ bad. I think you might be able to change. I think you were raised to not care if someone killed an animal for you to eat and forests were destroyed for your paper. I’m going to make a fairy bargain with you. This is your one chance, are you listening?” 

Rey straddled him, wrapping his arms around her waist, “I’m taking a very big risk for you, so consider my offer seriously.”

“What?” He said softly, very confused and squinty, his gaze on her lips.

“You have to look at my eyes, though,” Rey instructed, waiting for his adorable brown eyes to find hers. 

“Good,” she said, starting the fairy bargain, speaking slow and clear. “You will dismantle this machine, so that no one can ever use it again. Then you will leave here forever,” she said, unblinking, drawing his air into her lungs, holding his shirt tight so he didn’t fall backwards.

He nodded, the spell almost complete now. 

“It gets lonely here. I’m going to miss you,” Rey whispered, tasting his lips once with hers, the kiss sealing the deal.

Kylo twisted to look at his machine, mad at it now, but she turned his face back to her. “Not yet, not yet,” she said, urgently, squirming in his lap. “I want to play with you before you go,” she said, kissing him again and smiling when his arms tightened around her. 

He slipped his tongue into her mouth, which was very forward of him, but that was part of the charm--that human men took what they wanted.

His hands moved down to her hips, already inching her dress up, so she reached between them, fumbling with the strangeness of his human clothes, trying to free him because she could feel his want straining tight against the fabric. His hands moved down when she couldn’t figure it out and he did it for her, then he lunged forward, pinning her on her back in the moss and driving himself into her, a low groan escaping his mouth.

“Ah!” she cried, not expecting the pain, but then it was overpowered by the feel of slippery friction.

He probably would have gone slower if he were in his right mind. Fae weren’t _supposed_ to do this with humans during a glamour, for their own safety more than anything. It did something strange to humans, blocked out their ability to think properly, made them hyper-focused on one thing at a time. Necessary for a fairy bargain, but turned men ravenous when their mind shifted to...this. Despite the risk, Rey couldn’t abide by glamour laws when it was so easy to do what she wanted. When she was on her own, watching him for three days straight, swimming in her river and peeing behind her trees.

She raised her hips to meet his thrusts, growing slicker, and enjoying his panting in her ear, his hair tickling her face, the dull fullness sliding in and out of her, his hip bones pounding into her thighs. And then something changed and she closed her eyes like him, her whole body tensing, and he kissed her, still curving his hips harshly into hers, and she pulled on his shirt, wanting more, wanting it all, because he was in _her_ forest and _everything_ in it was hers.

“Ah!” she cried again, but this time from pleasure, arching her back and reeling. 

Kylo smiled, pausing, his hot, gasping breath on her throat, kissing down her chest and pushing her dress up until he could suck her nipple, licking down to her navel, and lower. He gripped her thighs tight in his giant hands and kissed her between her legs--with that tongue again--teasing her with a series of hungry, wet circles, then slipped two fingers into her, using that hand to drag her closer to him eagerly, his arm muscles working as he rubbed her from the inside, raising himself up to kiss and lick his way north again. 

Her thighs shook as his fingers moved faster, his dark stare on her, fully focused now, and that was intimidating, so she closed her eyes and let it take her, almost sitting up this time as it hit, then laying back in the grass, her hair a tangle of moss strands and white dandelion seeds. 

For some reason she didn’t feel satisfied, staring up at the sky through the trees, catching her breath, then he pushed into her again, his hands on the ground to either side of her head, his face replacing the sky as he looked down at her with that same intense look, his lips swollen from exploring her body so hastily.

Kylo rubbed a thumb over her cheek, getting a closer look at her tattoo. Two arrows crossing. One symbolizing humans, the other Fae, constantly at war. 

But Kylo didn’t know that as he closed his eyes and thrust home, his face looking almost pained as he spilled into her, deep and warm and honest. And she knew what she was missing.

She wanted the human to feel satisfied too. 

Maybe it was the fairy bargain.


	2. I can’t stick to the path

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **I can't stick to the path  
>  'Cause I dream about nothing but you  
> Eat, sleep, wake  
> Nothing but you  
> Eat, sleep, wake  
> Nothing but you  
> Eat, sleep, wake  
> Nothing but you **
> 
> Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You) by Bombay Bicycle Club

_Leia,_

_I think I may have made a mistake. Two days ago, I broke glamour law - and I think you know_ _how_ _\- with the logger I was telling you about, the one with the annoying machine._

_The thing is, I couldn’t kill him, even though it was my duty. He had a gentle side and I decided to give him a chance. So I glamoured him to do a fairy bargain which led to…_

_But now I can’t stop thinking about him! And it hurts and I wish I hadn’t banished him. Sometimes I’ll be doing something and I swear I can feel him thinking about me too!_

_So I started wondering. You lived with the humans for a time, should I try what you did? I could go to the logging camp and find him! Someone would have to watch my forest for me, maybe Rose?_

_Wait. Is this the reason you’re not supposed to break glamour law? Not because it’s dangerous but because it makes you imprint on a human? Help me. Everything has backfired._

_Rey_

Folding the handmade paper, Rey stepped out onto her deck and stuck two fingers in her mouth, whistling sharply. Her raven familiar, BeeBee, landed on the banister, clacking his beak excitedly. 

“One moment, one moment,” Rey said, tying it to his leg. “Straight to Leia and come back. We’re going on a trip.”

His large, black eyes blinked and she knew he couldn’t understand her, but she enjoyed talking to him. She had no one else.

As he flapped away through the branches of her old oak, Rey decided to go see how Kylo did at destroying his machine, since BeeBee wouldn’t be back till nightfall. 

Climbing down her tree house ladder, she checked to make sure her fairy circle of mushrooms was still in place to protect her house from humans and pulled a ripe cucumber from the garden to eat on her way. It was a bit of a walk, but she decided to go barefoot. She liked tiptoeing, disturbing nothing. And the slower pace helped her appreciate her forest and the cool, hard-packed dirt of her footpath.

After a while, she heard an abrasive clanging as she neared the river and sped up, gasping when she saw Kylo still there, cursing and beating at the bolts on the bulldozer with a rock. 

“Stop! Stop!” Rey cried, running now. 

Kylo looked weak and his hands were bloody. She ran up and pulled the heavy rock from his hands, trying to remember how to reverse a fairy bargain. 

“It’s _you_ ,” he said, his eyes lighting up, wiping his hair out of his face to see her better, leaving a red smear on his forehead, unaware that he should be in pain. “You’re _so_ beautiful.” He walked closer and kissed her, nearly knocking her to the ground with the force of his mouth, but she took no pleasure in it, stepping out of reach. He was out of his mind.

“Have you been here, doing this for two days?” Rey asked, her stomach turning. 

Ben kicked at the machine with his disgusting animal-skin boot. “I’m going to take it apart, I promise. A deal’s a deal. A deal’s a deal. A deal’s a deal,” he said, sounding even more crazed.

Rey stepped on the rock as he reached down for it to continue, but he turned back to the machine, unphased. 

“I know. I’m so stupid. I’ll just drive it into the river!” He said, wildly, climbing into it. 

All along the yellow sides there were bloody hand prints from his efforts to dismantle the machine over the last two days. Rey broke down crying, trying to pull him away, but he was too strong. He started it up and turned the steering wheel, making straight for the water.

She watched, powerless, as Kylo and the machine rolled down the muddy bank and into the silty water, until the cab and seat were fully submerged but he didn’t have the sense to get out. 

There was a moment of deafening silence before Rey ran down the hill, sliding and ignoring the rocks and river mussel shells hurting her feet. She dove under, frantic and feeling in the dark for the cab, going inside despite her body screaming for oxygen and her skin telling her it was too cold, and grabbed Kylo by the shirt, yanking him to the surface. 

Both coughing, they crawled to the bank where Kylo collapsed on his back, looking at his hands as if feeling the pain for the first time. He tried to sit up but Rey pushed him down, worried he was going to get back in the water. 

That’s when he looked at her as if he hadn’t noticed her there.

“Was I drowning? Who are you? Did you pull me out?” He asked, his voice clear and awake, his gaze reminding her of a moment when they lay together after the fairy bargain. Intense, fully-focused. 

Rey relaxed, realizing the water had washed away whatever was making him self-destructively attack the bulldozer. 

“I’m Rey,” she said, with a little wave. She would have offered a human handshake but his hands were still sticky with scrapes and cuts.

“Kylo,” he said, copying her wave, as if she were quirky, and sitting up slowly.

He didn’t remember any of it. Glamour memory loss. 

She helped Kylo stand and led him over to his boat but he was looking back up the hill. “My EcoLog is gone,” he muttered, rubbing his forehead with the back of his hand, as if trying to coax forth the memories.

Rey couldn’t think of anything to say as she climbed into the boat and pulled him in after her, untying the rope that had it attached to a stump onshore. He needed to get back to his kind before a predator got him or something. Humans didn't do good against wildlife and he smelled like blood.

“Where did you come from, Rey? I didn’t think anyone lived out here,” he said, looking at her white dress, river mud brown now. “Were you doing a photo shoot or something?” He asked, repeating the same question from two days ago.

Her clothes probably looked strange to humans who bought everything in stores. Her dresses were holey and see-through thanks to the mesh-stitched wool, made from angora goats the colony had rescued from evil farmers who sheared them for profit then killed them for meat. It was heavy now with water.

“Can I come with you? To make sure you make it back okay?” Rey asked. She could tell he was wondering, standing there with his boat keys in hand.

“Sure! Yeah, I feel like _shit_. Oh, sorry, my language,” he said, sitting and starting the boat. 

Rey fell into a seat, trying to pretend she’d ridden in a motorboat before as Kylo backed it up, then turned toward the logging camp downriver. At least he remembered everything else.

Pulling her dress off, Rey wrung it out over the side, turning back to see Kylo staring straight forward, his mouth open in shock. 

“Oh, I forgot, sorry. You guys don’t take your clothes off around each other unless you’re together,” Rey said, pulling her dress back on.

“Jesus Christ, woman, where do you _come from_?” Kylo laughed then, a short sound she wished had lasted longer. 

“Are you religious?” Rey asked, curiously, putting her wet hair into a bun on the top of her head.

“What? No. Oh, _Jesus Christ_? It’s just an expression,” Kylo said, speeding the boat up and staying on the deep side of the river.

Propping her feet up on the console, Rey saw him glance at her as if she was doing something wrong again.

“I think...I’m going to keep going on. Into town,” he said, stiffly.

Rey sat up straighter, smiling. She’d never been to town, but she’d heard of it. A _huge_ place with lots of buildings where hundreds of people lived and ate and bought things. People who kept little dogs in their backyards and every single one of them had their own car, sometimes two.

“Is it because you need the _hospital_?” Rey asked, hoping she pronounced that right. Hose-pit-al.

His eyebrows knitted, looking at her again. She must have said it wrong.

“No. It’s because you’re half-naked and not wearing underwear and I’m not taking you within a mile of camp,” he said, honestly.


	3. Wake me up if you have bad dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **We've got it figured out, babe  
>  In our own way  
> We've got it figured out, babe  
> And it's here to stay  
> It's alright if we go to sleep  
> Just please wake me up  
> If you have bad dreams**
> 
> Blonde Sun by Angus Maude

The sun was going down as they started to pass signs of human civilization: docks and boats, boxy houses, lawns chopped down into carpets. 

Rey leaned forward, playing with the keys by Kylo’s leg. There was a squishy thing he said floated them if they fell in the water, but that wasn’t what caught her attention.

“Kylo,” she said, but he didn’t respond so she said his name louder. “Kylo.” He looked down at her.

“Who gave you a hag stone?” Rey asked, rubbing the smooth, grey, river rock with the natural hole straight through it, rarer than a four leaf clover. 

“My mom,” he said, offhandedly.

“It’s useless unless you wear it as a necklace,” Rey informed him. His mother was trying to protect him, doing it all wrong. It wasn’t a charm, it had to touch his skin, imbued with the magic of flowing water, the only way to wash away or protect from--some--Fae magic, or so humans thought. She’d never tested the theory. The real magic might be in a Fae spotting the hag stone and assuming a Fae had given it to protect that human, asking for mercy on their behalf in return for a good deed or saving their life.

“It’s just a rock. So it’s useless either way. And it _was_ a necklace, but the chain broke and I just stuck it on there,” he said, sounding tired. He probably hadn’t slept in days. 

“Do you want me to drive for a while?” Rey asked, sliding into his warm lap and taking the wheel. 

He squeezed out from under her, moving to her old seat and looking much more awake.

Rey dodged a piece of driftwood. Driving was easy. Plus she could see better in the dark than a human, so it was safer. She just didn’t know where they were going or how to stop.

When they got close to town, he took back over, pulling up to a dock with lots of other boats covered in canvases and he did the same to his, tying it up and tarping it. 

He took his denim shirt off and handed it to Rey, not because she was cold, but because she was going to attract attention. Kylo still had on a white T-shirt, but his arms were big, straining against it and she reached out as they walked, just touching the swell of muscle there, but that seemed to make him uncomfortable, so she stopped. She felt like she was doing everything wrong. 

Her unease was soon forgotten as they reached the top of the hill and she saw streetlights and roads and sidewalks for them to play on, running and swinging around a pole on one arm. 

“Be careful,” he said, grabbing her hand to slow her down. “You’re going to step on glass or something.” 

Humans were so afraid of embarrassment. Even when there was no one out, everyone tucked into their houses, asleep or staring at their TVs.

He turned off the sidewalk up to a cute, one-story home, small compared to the rest, but huge compared to her tree house. She wanted to follow him inside but there was a poinsettia wreath on the door.

“What’s wrong? I could probably get one of my girl friends to put you up for the night if you’re worried…” he started, coming back out on the porch. Rey almost giggled. He thought she didn't trust him to be good with her, even after all the signs that he was a respectful man. 

Rey pointed to the wreath, keeping her distance from the waxy leaves and red blooms. For one, it wasn’t the right time of year, which meant magic was afoot. And secondly, she was getting tired of holding her breath to prevent poisoning herself. She took a step back down the stairs.

“The wreath?” He asked, taking it down with one hand and throwing it like a skipping stone towards a trash can on his driveway. 

Rey took a deep breath, smiling again and walking past him inside as he muttered, “just plastic.”

A man with grey hair sat up from the wood table, where he had been laying his head, startling Rey when he suddenly ran at them.

“Kid! Where have you been?!” He said, grabbing Kylo by the shoulders and pulling him into a hug. “Sorry, I scared your little friend,” he said, smiling at her over Kylo’s back.

Kylo motioned to Rey to come out of the shadowy hallway. “Dad, this is Rey, I think she might have saved my life, but I don’t really know what happened.”

As Kylo began explaining what he could remember, Rey saw a look of recognition on his father’s face when his eyes landed on Rey’s cheek tattoo. This man knew what she was. While his son spoke, he was asking her with his eyes if she was friend or foe and she tried to tell him without words. Friend.

“Did you tell her your name?” His father asked, cutting him off. He was most assuredly going to tell Kylo she was Fae. He knew that names held power and that Kylo should never have offered her his, even though she’d heard it over the radio the first time she watched him roll in with his machine.

“Uh, well, no. Not my real one,” Kylo said, shifting. But then he turned to Rey quickly, “We’re not criminals or anything! It’s just this thing. This superstitious, stupid thing,” he added, chastising his father.

“Was it his mother?” Rey asked Kylo’s--or whatever his name was--father, slightly annoyed she didn’t know his real name. She had gotten attached to ‘Kylo’.

She would have asked ‘Was his mother Fae?’, but for some reason he had left his son in the dark. It felt like she was growing closer and closer to Kylo, but he kept slipping further and further away. Forgetting their day together, shying away from her touch, giving her a false name.

“Was what my mother?” Kylo said, looking between the two of them, suddenly aware that he was unaware.

“Yes. So, please…” his father said, letting the moment hang in an unspoken plea. He was afraid of Fae. Of her. He must have wronged Fae in the past and that scared _her_. But until she knew his crime, she couldn’t punish him.

“What did you do to her?” Rey asked, noting her absence. 

“She died,” Kylo said at the same time his father said, “She went back.”

“What?!” Kylo said, turning to his father now.

“I’ve got to go, kid. Don’t tell her your name and...and call me in the morning,” he said, backing out the front door.

“Dad!” Kylo shouted from the porch, watching his father’s retreat, before slamming the door. “What the hell just happened?” He asked, looking dead on his feet. 

He must have been young when his mother returned to the Fae. So uncommon for a Fae to live with humans. Leia was the only one she knew who had ever attempted such a thing. But she would never have left a child with a human. She was a wonderful mother, taking in human children whose parents were neglectful or abusive. Or Fae orphans, like Rey.

Rey pushed him towards his bedroom and onto the bed where he sat, dazed, watching as she pulled his nasty leather boots off and flung them across the room. Yuck. How could a Fae live with humans?

“Just sleep,” she said, walking back to the hall. “I’ll find a spot.”

She was sleepy too and didn’t want to talk, didn’t want to to tell him what she was. For all she knew, his father was going to rouse the other humans to drive her out. He probably knew how to do it too, having known a Fae for long enough to raise a child. Maybe _he_ put the mock wreath on the door, not a real one, so it wouldn’t hurt his son, the halfling. 

She needed to find a place to hide, preferably not in the house. Too much space. Continuing down the hall, she opened the back door, looking around to see if he had a dog in the backyard, but was disappointed. 

Gasping, she looked up, seeing a Fae-made child’s tree house. She knew his mother had done it because the willow branches were woven together into a teardrop-shaped nest with lots of holes for windows and a mossy roof. It even had a deck, like hers, but no fairy circle of mushrooms around the trunk. His mother couldn’t do that, unless she wanted to paralyze her own son.

Rey climbed the ladder and burrowed inside, full of leaves that hadn’t been changed out, but she wasn’t complaining, asleep in minutes.

————————————

Rey walked up behind the woman as she sat in front of the mirror, watching as she put a layer of skin-colored clay over her cheek, hiding her tattoo. She recognized Leia, and nearly awoke, but was too interested, too enthralled in Kylo’s dream.

Leia held a finger to her lips when she saw him, smiling with a ‘shhhh’. It was a secret. She was going out and didn’t want humans knowing what she was. There was both love and sadness in her eyes as she pushed the dark hair out of Kylo’s eyes. “Go find Daddy, Ben.”

Ben--not Kylo--turned and ran to the kitchen, pulling out a black pen and drawing a tattoo on his cheek too, to match the one on his mother. Two arrows crossing. His father came in and pulled the pen out of his hand, laughing, but stopped when he turned him around.

“Let’s go wash that off,” he muttered. 

Leia came into the bathroom as he scrubbed at Ben’s face. “Han, he didn’t know any better.”

“People are going to know. He grows too fast, he can’t play with other kids. The necklace. And now I can’t watch him all the time to make sure he doesn’t draw on himself!” Han said, scouring Ben’s cheek until it was red.

“Well, you know the alternative,” Leia said, pulling Han away.

“The Fae? Really? My son isn’t going anywhere near them!” Han said forcefully, taking Ben by the hand and leading him outside to play in his tree house.

Climbing the ladder, Ben sat on the deck, watching his parents fight over where they would live, not safe with the humans or the Fae, and he, somewhere in between, right there where the arrows met. He screamed and his parents stopped, looking up at him and Rey sat up, feeling Ben’s pain. Not the one in the dream, but the one in the house. 

She climbed down the ladder and walked over the strange, short grass, covered in dew, into the house and into Ben’s bedroom. She didn’t have any rosemary to put under his bed. The smell would have helped him dream about lovely things. Instead she shimmied out of her dress, covered in bits of dry leaves, and climbed into bed with him. 

It was oddly comfortable, the human bed with pillows and blankets, all stretched out and warm with him next to her. She lifted his giant arm over her and hugged it tight.

He awoke then, but didn’t move his arm, for whatever reason. She hoped it was because he liked it there.

“Ben,” she whispered, closing her eyes and squirming into him.


	4. We supercollide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **I'm shaking salvation  
>  I'm flying faster and faster and I  
> I was the darkness  
> And you where the light  
> Tear it apart  
> And then we supercollide  
> I was the dark  
> We supercollide  
> And you were the light**
> 
> Supercollide by BANNERS

Rey awoke on her back, Ben’s arm still over her stomach. She yawned and he pulled her closer, still asleep, looking peaceful. Rey couldn’t help but smile. He’d gotten over the whole touching thing. And whether he knew it or not, his body was _firmly_ content to have her there. But she had to pee.

Lifting his arm carefully, she slid out of the bed and walked down the hall, opening the back door and stretching. So much cheery sun when there weren’t many trees. An old man was in the yard next to Ben’s, watering a trellis of roses and staring at her, his hose pouring continuously in one spot. She offered him a wave and squatted down to pee. He finally looked away and Rey was glad to know that humans respected privacy in that area.

Going back inside, she followed a flowery smell to a room with a tile floor and a weird, cold, white chair. Then she recognized a bathtub and turned the faucet, clapping when fresh water came pouring out. She plugged up the hole and tested the knobs to make sure she knew how to make the water stop when it was full, discovering that she could make the water hot. Who said humans couldn’t do magic?

Climbing in, she started sniffing all of the bottles, reading and rereading the instructions. Usually, Fae used the same bar of soap for everything, but humans used something for their hair, their bodies, their faces, scrubbing their feet. It was all quite fascinating and she enjoyed trying every option.

The bathwater was getting so bubbly, what with all the concoctions, she couldn’t even see through the water anymore. Reaching for something small and black, Ben cleared his throat in the open doorway, “Sorry! Careful, it’s a razor. Oh my god,” he said, running and taking it cautiously out of her hand. “You just picked it up by the wrong end and I am so confused you have to give me some answers.”

He set the ‘razor’ down on the sink, turning to look at her, apparently satisfied as long as the bubbles were keeping her modest.

Her finger was stinging and she looked at it, seeing a line of blood form, “shit.” 

Ben leaned over, “Oh, you did cut yourself, hang on.” He opened up a secret cabinet behind the mirror and pulled out a box. Sitting next to the tub facing her, he wrapped her finger in a bandage, which was silly. Now she had to hold one finger out of the water.

Looking down at his own hands, bruised and scratched, Ben held them up. “What happened to me? Where did you come from? Why did you freak my Dad out?” He was still in his half-dry, muddy clothes from yesterday.

“Get in and I’ll tell you,” Rey said, hoping to lather some of the good-smelling stuff in his hair. And see him naked. It wasn’t fair, he’d seen _her_ naked.

He laughed nervously. “Listen. I don’t know you. I don’t even know how old you are and you look pretty young.”

“I’m four,” Rey said, sitting up straight so he’d know she was grown.

“Excuse me?” he said, holding his hand up to block his own view of her breasts as they came out of the water. 

She sighed, sliding back beneath the surface. “You asked, that’s the answer. I grew up faster than you. But I was an adult among my kind a year ago.”

“Your _kind_?” He repeated her.

“Let’s make a deal. For every answer, you have to take something off. And then get _in_ ,” Rey said, annoyed. There was plenty of room for both of them and he was being such a human prude.

He swallowed, considering.

“Deal,” he said quietly. “What do you mean, your _kind_?” 

Rey pointed to her cheek, “The Fae. The Fair Folk-,”

“Fairies?” Ben laughed. “Aren’t they supposed to be like this big with wings?” he said, holding up two fingers.

“We call those birds. Or maybe you’re thinking bugs,” Rey said, rolling her eyes. “Now take your shirt off.”

Ben sat, still trying to tell if she seriously thought she was a ‘fairy’, and pulled his shirt over his head, mussing his hair. “Okay...if you’re a _Fae_ , do some magic.”

Rey smiled. Then bit her lip.

“I’m waiting,” he said, facetiously.

“I’m doing it _now_ ,” Rey said, trying a lower dose of pheromones. A micro glamour, if you will. She stopped when Ben’s eyes glazed over. “Take off your pants.”

He stood, ripping his pants off and sitting back down.

Rey cupped water in her hands and poured it over his head, over and over until he looked normal again.

Looking down at his bare legs, having forgotten that he just took his pants off himself, Ben mouthed, “the fuck?” 

“Is that a question?” Rey asked. He only had one more layer. His black underwear shorts. Although, the view was good now. She reached her wet, soapy hand out--the one that didn’t have a bandaged finger--and felt his chest, his eyes watching her hand move over his taut skin.

“Yes,” he said, swiping a hand through his wet hair. “What the fuck did you just do?”

“A glamour,” she said, letting her hand glide down and snap the waistband of his shorts. The last item.

Ben exhaled deeply, then slid his shorts down his legs, raising his knees to block her view of his manhood. 

“One more,” Rey said, wanting him to get in next.

“What happened to me? Yesterday,” he said, watching her swirl the water around her invitingly, forgetting about her bandage.

Rey didn’t want to tell him the full story, and he hadn’t been specific. It was so easy to leave off details. “You drove your machine into the river and I pulled you out,” she said, innocently. 

She wanted to do another glamour and tell him to get in. But she also wanted him to remember being with her this time. Like he remembered sleeping next to her, their bodies tight against each other all night. 

“I drove my EcoLog into the river?” He said, glancing at his pants and putting two and two together that she had probably made him do it. “That was a _very_ expensive piece of equipment.”

“You were destroying _my_ forest,” Rey said, reaching between his legs and smiling sweetly at his sharp inhale. She stroked him once, locking eyes with him. She didn’t need a glamour, she could tell he wanted more. “Get in here, human.”

She let go as he stood and stepped in with her, the water rising almost to the top as he eased himself down. He stretched his long legs to either side of her, still having to bend his knees. 

Her hand found him again under the water, and he groaned, pulling her by the knees up to straddle him.

“Let’s make a deal,” he whispered as she pumped him. 

“What?” Rey asked, interested, her mouth an inch from his. 

“If we do this,” he began.

Rey leaned in and sucked his neck, tasting river silt, “yeah?”

“If we do this, you tell me _everything,_ ” he said, tilting her chin up so she was looking at him. Almost like he knew a bargain required eye contact. Maybe a memory. Or maybe his Fae instincts.

“Deal,” Rey said, closing her mouth on his lips, sealing the deal.

His phone rang. Loud and shrill and annoying. Rey held her hands over her ears.

“Oh, fuck, I forgot to call my dad,” Ben said, standing up and grabbing a towel, sliding out of the bathroom. 

Han. She had his name now, from Ben’s dream. Fae kept good records. If a human did something really bad, they could plague a human’s family for generations, living longer than three humans put together, as long as accidents or war didn’t cut their lifespan short. It was a power in itself. Leia still looked like she did in Ben's memory and his father had aged.

The water was getting cold as she tried to hear Ben’s deep voice. She didn't know how long he'd be pacing the kitchen, talking to his dad on his flat, little phone, so she stood and stepped out, drying off on a fluffy, white towel and putting it back.

Walking to his bedroom naked, so she could feel his eyes on her, she decided to hunt for some clothes. She picked out a big, white T-shirt in one of his drawers and slid that on, then sat on his bed as he walked to the door to watch her while he finished the conversation.

“I don’t know, Dad. She seems harmless to me,” he said, his eyes traveling up her legs to where the shirt barely covered her. 

She spread her legs a little, her way of telling him to hurry. They had a bargain to keep. 

“Yeah, I do want to know about Mom, so why don’t you come over around noon and we’ll talk about it. It is noon? Okay, maybe in a couple hours,” Ben said, stepping between Rey’s legs, looking like he was about to throw his phone across the room.

Rey pulled at the towel he’d wrapped around his waist, grabbing him and guiding him as he leaned, still holding the phone to his ear, watching her. 

“D-dad, I gotta go,” he said as Rey rubbed his tip up and down her entrance, slick and waiting for him to make the next move. 

“I know. I’m. I’ll be careful,” he said, his breath catching in his throat. “Please. I have to go,” he begged as Rey took his free hand and pressed it to her breast, soft beneath his thin T-shirt. “Okay, see you at two,” Ben said, hanging up without saying goodbye and driving himself into her.


	5. I get lost in it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Getting lost somewhere  
>  I really just can't remember  
> Cause I'm staring at your face  
> And I get lost in it  
> And your eyes  
> They take me back again  
> Into you**
> 
> Summer by Phillip Larue

“Whoa! Fuck, I’m sorry, let me grab a condom,” Ben said, after he bottomed out inside her, right up to her absolute limits, hard enough to push her further onto the bed. He pulled out and stood, looking down at her. “Jesus Christ. You are so beautiful.”

Rey felt powerful. Seducing Ben was easy and fun and she was in control. It wasn’t like that with Fae men. They could glamour females so she’d always given them a wide berth. Ben couldn’t do that though, as a halfling. Speaking of which.

“You don’t need one,” Rey said, watching him close the drawer to his nightstand and tear at the little square with his teeth. She knew all about human contraceptives. The Fae got them for the human adoptees, forbidden from having their own children until they were of age in human years. 

“Why, are fairies on the pill?” Ben asked, skeptically. 

What a dumb question. As if Fae went to human doctors for pills to prevent pregnancy. They were doing everything they _could_ to get pregnant. Fae gestation was only a month and the colony would help raise them until they were three--so it wasn’t as much work as a human child. The Fae were going extinct and _any_ child was precious, Fae or human.

“No, because you’re sterile,” Rey said, smiling when his eyebrows knitted in that cute way that they did.

“What!?” He said, picking his towel off the floor and wrapping it around his waist again, as if he was planning to renege on their bargain.

Amazing that the Fae knew so much about humans and they knew nothing about _them_. “You’re a halfling, so you can’t get me pregnant. Oh, your mom, I’m talking about your mom, she's Fae,” Rey added because he was looking at her like she was crazy.

“I am not sterile. I have no problem-,” he started, defensively.

“Oh, no no, Ben! You’re great at _that_ , I’m just saying you can’t get me pregnant. It’s kind of like when a horse and a donkey-,” Rey said quickly, trying to reassure him.

“I’m not a fucking _mule_ okay? And what the fuck, one thrust and you act like you know how good I am in bed? And this is how you tell me my mom was a Fae? Is that where she is? Somewhere in the Tongass National Forest? Fuck!” he spat, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Ben's jaw was tight, but his shoulders started relaxing. “Can I really not have kids?” he asked seriously, his eyes on the hallway rug.

Rey swallowed, wishing she had told him differently. The other halflings grew up knowing about the genetics. They adopted. They helped raise the orphans. They were still highly-valuable members of the colony. Even Rose was watching Rey’s forest while she was gone. Hopefully.

“Ben,” Rey said, running her hand through his hair. “Think of it like a gift, not a curse. We can do whatever we want,” she lowered her voice innocently, the way that made his pupils dilate with interest, “anytime we want to.”

He looked sideways at her. “I never told you my name. And you keep saying it.”

Rey let her hand fall. She didn’t like his accusatory tone. “You dreamt it,” she said, deciding to tell the truth.

Ben turned to her fully then. “Okay, up until now, everything made sense. I can maybe comprehend another species living in hiding, blending in with humans when they need to. It's smart, I can’t imagine humans being very appreciative of what you’re capable of doing. I can even understand hypnotism and that fucking honeysuckle smell you gave off. That can probably be explained. But how the _hell_ do you expect me to believe in mind reading?” His hand was on her knee, squeezing as if trying to squish the answers out of her.

His hand was so big and she remembered how he had grasped her thighs in the forest, his head dipping between her legs, and his tongue pushing on her sensitive places with shameless force. 

“I don’t understand how it works. I’ve never heard of such a thing before. And as far as I know, there’s no fairy warrant on your names, so I don’t know why your father is so afraid,” Rey said. If ‘Han’ or ‘Ben Organa' were on the list, it wasn’t the local one. Their list was all hunters, loggers, old miners, and those teenagers who started the forest fire that killed her parents.

They had made a bargain and he wasn’t doing it. She was telling him everything and that was supposed to come second. 

  
Rey stood up, shucking the T-shirt to the floor, and straddling him on the edge of the bed. Wrapping her hands around the back of his neck, she whispered, “I don’t know why I saw your dream, your memory buried so deep even you don’t remember it. But I feel like we’re supposed to stay together. Like some animals do. Where I can’t stop thinking about you and _wanting_ you again.”

“Again,” Ben repeated, right before she leaned down to kiss him--with tongue, the way he liked that day in the forest--pulling at the stupid towel separating them. 

He turned, flinging her to the bed under him. “Have we already done this?!” he said, not remembering, but reading her slip up. 

Rey couldn’t tell. Was he _really_ mad? She tried to squirm away but he grabbed her by the hips and slid her back under him.

“Yes,” Rey admitted, afraid he was going to hurt her. “I couldn’t help it!”

“Couldn’t help it!?” He said, his glare incredulous. “You _glamoured_ me and had _sex_ with me and I forgot all about it?”

“Yes,” Rey said, crying now. She was exploding with emotions, too many at once. Fear and embarrassment. But she was also shaking and needy with him pinning her down, hard, and _it_ was touching her stomach. She pressed her legs together, trying to look anywhere but his face, inches from hers, fighting the urge to end the situation and glamour him again, a battle of her own composure and instincts.

“Give me the memory back,” he said, his rough hand on her chin, twisting her to look at him.

“I can’t, it’s gone!” Rey sobbed. Glamours were self defense. Like a poisonous perfume. The only cure being not to do it in the first place.

“I know mine is gone. Give me _yours_ ,” he said, digging his erection where she was aching the most.

“What? Oh, please,” she whined, annoyed that she’d just begged aloud. He was so big, his heat radiating onto her, grinding into her, making her wet and uncomfortable. She closed her eyes tight, wondering if she focused maybe that contact would be enough to satisfy.

“Look into my eyes again,” he ordered her, and she did. “Think about that day. I can almost see it.” 

His thumb rubbed a tear off her cheek, off her tattoo, and she remembered when he looked closely at it the first time, right before he finished inside her.

“Did I really? Fuck,” he said to himself, as if he’d _seen_ her memory.

Rey closed her eyes, trying to wriggle her arms south to touch him.

“Look at me, Rey,” he growled, grabbing her wrists and pinning them to the bed, a game of wills now.

She looked at his chest, then slowly met his eye line, remembering, everything in reverse. His kiss-stung lips. Licking and sucking down her body, his fingers inside her, showing him everything from her perspective. When it hit her, sweet and shivery, his mouth trailing along her body and the first time it hit, after building under the friction of his brutal thrusts, when he pushed into her so fast that she screamed a little. He saw more than that too. He saw the truth.

“That was your first time,” he said, tired, as if reading her was exhausting. 

It was like that for Rey too. Seeing his dream made her sleep, even in a strange, too-soft human bed.

“Please,” Rey whimpered, looking into his eyes and projecting. Forgive me. Touch me. I’ll tell you everything.

His eyes drifted to her mouth and she knew he was finally going to continue because his hips did the smallest rocking motion into her again, feeling how slick she was for him. 

Ben’s hand moved down, releasing her wrist and positioning himself. He slid in slower this time, more restrained, the soft tip, followed by the hard rest, filling her and stretching her around him, exhaling in gratification. His hips bucked into her and he released her other wrist. She turned her hands down and grabbed at the bedding, like laying on a cloud, closing her eyes now that he was done invading her mind.

He kissed along her collarbone, up her neck and once on her cheek, finding her lips and coaxing her mouth wide with his. As Ben’s hips sunk into her and withdrew, up and down in waves, she tasted a hint of sugary honeysuckle on his tongue. It tasted like summer. Like a place she could live forever. Somewhere in his chestnut eyes. Maybe he had a little Fae power. 

She hoped she’d remember this when they were done.


	6. We all come from broken homes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **I've been a stranger  
>  Sleeping with you in my bed  
> I wish I could save you  
> From the thoughts up in my head  
> We all come from broken homes  
> But still I keep you close  
> I'm an empty hollow shell  
> On a one-way trip to hell**
> 
> Strangers by Covey

Rey patted the rich earth down tight. The bath’s cleaning effects hadn’t lasted long. She had dirt under her fingernails and her knees were tinted green from kneeling in the grass.

“Is she still here?” Han asked in a whisper when Ben let him in the front door. He probably knew Fae could hear ten times better than them.

“I think she’s out back giving my favorite boots a proper burial,” Ben said, sourly.

Rey started stacking river rocks she’d found in his driveway to make a little cairn for the poor cow who was killed for his idiotic shoes. His closet was full of shoes made from other things. Why kill this gentle creature? She had so far to go with him...and she was scared to look in his refrigerator.

“You been doing some shopping?” Ben joked to his father in the dining room and Rey heard the soft rustle of a bag. 

“It’s for her. Some decent clothes,” Han said gruffly.

_A gift!_ Rey thought, excitedly, jumping up and running into the room, straight for the bag. Maybe Han did know how to treat a Fae right.

Rey pulled out a black floral dress and made a face. Something old ladies would wear.

Han smirked, “Thought I’d try at least.” He looked at Ben while Rey continued digging through the bag. “Fairies like to show off, if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I think I do,” Ben said, as him and his father both swiftly turned their backs. Rey had found a semi-sheer, slinky, red dress, light as a feather, and immediately pulled off Ben’s T-shirt to replace it. 

“I’m done,” she said, wanting them to turn back around and see her. She was rewarded with two pairs of raised eyebrows.

“Pretty,” Han said quickly and she could tell he had known a lot of Fae. Fae don’t like pauses and humans were prone to judgement. She frowned at Ben, still waiting for a compliment, but then their eyes met and she could read his mind.

_I can see half of your breasts,_ he thought, running the tip of his tongue idly over the sharp edges of his top teeth. And ignited lust was better than Han’s verbalized placation.

Han was wearing a necklace today, another hag stone. 

“Han, why was Leia trying to protect you and Ben from the Fae?” she asked, walking into the kitchen to get Ben’s fruit bowl. It wasn’t hers to give, but the urge to gift Han back was strong.

“I told you not to tell her our names!” Han said quietly to Ben when she was in the kitchen. 

She came back offering it out to them and they both took an apple. Rey herself was half-starved and helped herself to an orange, imported and clearly the more interesting choice. Apple trees were everywhere.

“I didn’t tell her, she just kind of knew. Because I dreamt it,” Ben said, taking a dripping, crunchy bite and sitting down at the dining room table.

“Right,” Han said skeptically.

“It’s true,” Rey said, chewing on the sour orange rind, trying not to waste any of it. “And you don’t have to worry. There are no Han or Ben Organas on the local warrants.”

Han reached across the table to touch Ben’s arm, but he was already talking, “It’s not Organa, it’s _Solo_.”

Rey forgot humans were weird. Married Fae couples took the woman’s name. She was the one bringing life into the world! So unfair to name children after their father who only had to-wait...Solo.

Han’s hand clenched in a fist and he slid it back across the table, his apple untouched before him.

“Solo?!” Rey exclaimed. “Oh my gosh! You’re _the_ Dr. Solo!” she screamed, looking at Ben and back to Han. “You’re famous! You stopped the mining operations. You wrote the Federal Cave Resources Protection Act of 2001!”

Relaxing a bit, his conservation work preceding him, Han smiled, “So ‘Solo’s’ not on the warrant then? Wonder if Leia did something. How is she, by the way?” 

Han’s attempt at a half-hearted inquiry came out awfully whole-hearted. It almost made her sad. “She’s wonderful. She raised me,” Rey said, taking a bite of an orange segment, juicy--and so much better than the rind. 

“Why did she just leave?” Ben asked, bitterly.

Rey shrugged. Leia _never_ talked about it.

"And why did _you_ tell me she died?" Ben said, looking at his father now.

Han drummed his fingers on the table. “It's kind of a long story. I worked with the Fae for years. Came across Luke--Leia’s brother--when I was researching the extensive cave network. I’m pretty sure he was going to kill me, but then I told him I was trying to pass a bill to protect the National Forest from corporate interests and we became fast friends. Then I met Leia. Well, more like, we had to bail her out of jail and I was the only one with money,” Han laughed. “She had destroyed a bunch of mining equipment. Cops didn’t know what to make of her. No ID. They thought she was a member of Greenpeace or something.”

Rey knew Luke. Everyone knew Luke. He was a talented combat instructor and frequently led raids. He was revered. Although, there was some talk that he was in love with his sister.

Han’s smile faded slowly as he talked, “Leia lived with me and we had Ben and then things got hard. I’d made the Fae promises. I was going to get the logging contract cancelled but it was signed. A fifty year one. And isolating Ben was frustrating. He was six feet by age ten, but by then Leia was gone. Just left one day. When Ben was two. Figured the Fae were going to come for me. And didn't want Ben thinking badly of her.”

Rey knew broken promises were distasteful, but Dr. Solo was a legend. And no one would dare touch a human Leia had under her protection. It didn’t make sense. “Why didn’t you just go find her?”

Ben scoffed, “Do you have any idea how big that forest is?”

“No," Han said, waving his hand. "That wasn’t it. I knew where she was. I just figured I didn’t want to keep her from her purpose and I had Ben to remember her by,” Han said, his mouth tight. “Then Ben went and took a job for the very bastards I was trying to take down,” Han added, hitting on what sounded like a well-worn flash point.

“It’s this or lose the house,” Ben said, an excuse meant for Rey as well as his father, but Rey hoped he didn’t plan to return. Whatever reason he claimed, the Fae weren’t going to let him slide, hag stone or not and no amount of muscle could prevent a glamour.

Han cleared his throat, seeing Rey’s disapproving stare. “But, how about some real food? Maybe one day you can tell Leia we’re still vegan.”

\--------------------------------

All this talk about parents kept Rey up late, laying next to Ben, wishing his arm was over her, but he was asleep and she didn’t want to wake him. 

She remembered the forest fire that took her parents. They lived at an outpost, her mother’s gifted forest. Her parents left to hunt down mischief makers--the campers who were letting off fireworks, terrifying all the animals. Rey awoke, smelling the tree house burning around her. She barely made it down the ladder by the time it spread, chasing her and licking at her heels. Scorching leaves fell on her shoulders and scalp and her lungs were suffocating on acrid smoke, but she made it to the river. 

She let it carry her most of the night, then she realized she’d drifted past the colony and had to backtrack. The entrance to the caves was hard to find, but she did, and Leia took care of her burns. Days went by and everyone searched, but her parents never made it to the river or back to the colony.

Curled in a tight ball, Rey was angry. Ben had a mother, alive and beautiful and kind and he resented her. And it wasn’t fair that Han still loved her and they weren’t together. Humans didn’t live that long and time was slipping by.

Rey wished she could do something to reunite them. She wished she could take Ben and Han to the colony and then return to her forest, with Ben if he’d come with her. She wished they could make sure no more machines rolled into her forest as easily as signing a document, the way Han had done once. But nothing was ever that simple. 

As if sensing her unease, Ben rolled over in his sleep and pulled her closer to his chest. Amazing how he could do that. Erase every thought in her head in a moment. Like a glamour. But better.

Stretching her body out--the way humans slept--Rey smiled when Ben’s hand traveled down her ribs and curves. She’d woken him up accidentally. A rush of thoughts hit her and she knew he didn’t mind. 

He wasn’t thinking about sleep anymore, as his giant hand drew her hips tight to him in a silent request, his mouth touching the base of her neck.

Rey understood how Leia had done it, lived with a human, made that sacrifice. She’d give everything up for this, feeling Ben hard with desire, his hands kneading her body, his mind drowning her in the secret thoughts of men: coarse—and at the same time—more sentimental than she had ever allowed herself to be.


	7. I see people wondering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **He has bedroom eyes  
>  They’re just like mine  
> And when we walk the streets  
> I see people wondering  
> If we're true or troubled then**
> 
> Sun King by Laurel

BeeBee finally found her two days later when she was replacing the leaves in Ben’s treehouse. It really was in a terrible state of disrepair, with leaky spots and cobwebs.

“Hi, BeeBee! Good boy!” She said, untying the paper from his leg. Rey had been gone for five days now, so he’d probably been searching for her this whole time.

“Go take a break,” she told him, giving him a shooing hand signal. He shuffled along the deck and did a little hop before taking off, heading out to find his dinner.

_Rey!_

_Do NOT go to the logging camp under any circumstances! I’m sending Poe to come get you!_

_We’ll talk about your law breaking when you are back safe._

_Leia_

“Oh, crap,” Rey muttered.

“Did that bird just Harry Potter you a letter?” Ben said from the back door.

Rey was not familiar with this verb, but Ben’s head was full of white owls and castles and she assumed it was from another movie. “It’s from your mother, wanna read it?”

He stepped onto the grass and reached out, tall enough to take it from her hand without using the ladder.

“This paper is weird,” he laughed, holding it gingerly as he read. 

It was made from lint and old newspapers. Ben probably never made paper a day in his life.

“Why were you going to the logging camp? And who is,” he checked the letter again, “Poe?”

Rey slid to the edge of the deck and held her hands out, asking him to help her down—as if she was a child afraid of the height. She could have jumped down easily. And he knew it.

He smirked and put his hands on her waist, lowering her slow and close to show her he was strong. Then he kissed her and squeezed her tight, like their first kiss, a memory they both had now.

Rey walked inside, telling him about how she couldn’t stop thinking about him after their first meeting and how she’d wanted to go find him.

“And who is Poe?” He asked, crossing his arms and leaning on the counter while Rey washed her hands in the running-water-sink.

“Poe is a Fae scout. He has a boat and keeps an eye out for humans and sometimes talks to them and comes into town. He’s kind of an expert on humans. For the colony,” Rey said, trying to keep her thoughts away from _that one time._

“Wait. What was that?” Ben asked quickly. 

_Crap. He saw it._

“You two kissed?” He asked, smiling and also not smiling with his eyes.

“Ew, yes. One time. He has a thing for me-,” Rey started but Ben waved his hands.

“Seriously. Do not worry about it, it was just a kiss. Christ, if you only heard about my multiple conquests—you know, a while ago—it’d probably make you feel better,” he said, not putting her at ease at all, but the word _multiple_ was a little exaggerated, considering she’d read his thoughts just now and he’d only been with two women.

“Um, can you not read my personal...ugh. How is this going to work? How do either of us keep anything private?” Ben said, stomping to his bedroom and grabbing his shoes. He’d been so touchy about his masculinity since she mentioned the whole ‘sterile’ thing.

“Just. Stop thinking for one second, please,” he said, tying his shoes.

“Where are you going?” Rey asked. She couldn’t go anywhere because of her face tattoo. 

_Dad’s bar_ , he thought. 

“Out,” he said.

\--------------------------------

Rey had three dresses from Han and one pair of shoes. He called the shoes ‘wedges’ and it felt like she was walking around with hooves, but Ben thought they were pretty. The third dress she was saving for going out sometime. 

Apparently tonight was the night, because she knew what was really bothering Ben. He’d been thinking it nonstop.

Tomorrow he had to go tell his boss that he’d driven a $200,000 EcoLog into the river. Then he’d be sued and lose the house. 

The least she could do was show him she was worth leaving this human world behind. That he might lose a house, but gain a mate, his mother, and a home with Rey in the forest. Even if the mind reading was frustrating.

\---------------------

It wasn’t hard to find Ben. His thoughts were worried and stormy and she walked until they became louder, until she was standing outside of the only building in town that seemed to be open. It was on the corner with a little dangly sign that said “The Falcon” and some people were inside knocking balls around with sticks on tables and some were outside eating and she definitely smelled potatoes.

Rey stepped into the bar and Han’s eyes went round. “Ben. She can’t be here, we haven’t prepared her for _anything_ ,” he started whispering.

Ben spun around in his bar stool, not surprised to see her because he’d heard her thoughts approaching a block ago. He _wasn’t_ expecting her dress though. Black and gold and-

“Sorry, I thought it was longer,” Han muttered to Ben. 

But Ben liked it. He liked her hair too, parted to the side so she could cover her cheek. And for the moment, he wasn’t thinking about the house. Motioning for her to come in, he patted the stool next to him. “Want a drink?”

“She can’t,” Han said at the same time Rey said, “I can’t.” And he read her mind that alcohol was basically Fae poison. 

“Must be why I’m a lightweight,” Ben said, passing Rey the food menu instead.

“Oh wow! So many options,” Rey said, excited. She’d always wanted to go to a restaurant.

“Well, there are like six things, but yeah,” Han laughed.

She picked out the ‘French fries’, because Ben read her mind and could tell she was craving the potato smell. Han said he’d make her a fresh batch, right after he told Ben to make sure she didn’t talk to _anyone_.

But it wasn’t their fault that a girl came up to them. She was blonde and her boots were definitely made from cows. All the way up to her knees.

“Ben!” She said, _hugging_ him with her boobs pressed against him and Ben’s thoughts became a flurry of memories he couldn’t stifle, invading Rey’s mind with sex and _Kaydel—t_ hat was her name—and she sounded like a weasel when they’d had sex. For three months. A year ago.

Rey viciously wished she had a pen to write that name down. _Kaydel. Kaydel. Kaydel. Don’t forget._

“Hey,” Ben said, weakly, when their hug _finally_ ended. He could tell Rey saw _all of that_. Even one time on the ‘pool table’. She had wondered what those were called.

“Hi, I’m Kaydel,” she said, offering Rey her hand. “Do you two know each other?” She asked, pointing back and forth between them, a snide way of saying she knew Ben better than Rey.

Rey was shaking her hand, the way humans do. Hopefully. Maybe for too long. Kaydel’s fingernails were painted black and Rey kind of liked that and hated that she liked that.

Ben was trying to think about stupid things like _the floor and Rey’s legs and fuck don’t look at the pool table and she’s hearing all of this._

“I’m Rey. I’m Ben’s girlfriend,” Rey said, enjoying the moment Kaydel’s smile turned to acid. _Ha!_

_Girlfriend?_ Ben thought. And Rey prickled. He had no problem thinking of them as a couple when they were naked. But now, in public, he had an issue?

“Oh. Wow. Ben, finally settling down. No, I’m glad,” Kaydel said. 

Rey read that Ben had never used that word with anyone before. That he and Kaydel broke up because she thought he had ‘commitment issues’. 

“Well, it’s _new_ ,” Ben said, telling Rey to be quiet with his mind. It felt a bit like a shove, actually.

Kaydel ran her fingers through her hair unnecessarily, flipping it around in some practiced, feminine way that Rey had never seen before and even _she_ had to admit it was sexy. She felt slightly out of her league, there.

_Don’t be jealous._ Ben said through the connection. _She’s only beautiful on the outside._

And Rey smiled. Which made Ben smile. And Kaydel pretend to smile. “Well, you two look real cute together,” she said, grabbing a napkin off the bar--as if that’s why she’d come up there--and went back to her booth-table of friends with a wave and a walk that involved a lot of hip-swinging.

“I’m sorry,” Ben said, about his thoughts.

“That’s okay, just old _conquests_ , right?” Rey said, appeased.

Rey _loved_ her French fries. She could eat them all day. Every day. Human food was the best thing ever. It was no wonder most of them were chubby. Her basket was almost gone when Ben got up to go to the bathroom, staggering a little--because he _was_ a lightweight and he’d had three drinks. But his mood got better with each one, so it was a trade off.

Han was delivering food to a table when Kaydel was suddenly back.

“Hey, just wanted to warn you, as someone who has known Ben for several years. He _will_ break your heart. So honey, just be careful,” she said, feigning sincere pity, patting Rey’s hand on the bar.

Rey grabbed one of the forks out of the communal cup and buried it in the back of Kaydel’s hand, hard enough to pin it to the wood for a second.

She screamed and flailed and Ben came running, pulling the fork out slowly while Han wrapped it in a cloth napkin, both of them looking at Rey as if she’d snapped. Mentally. But, really, it was totally justified. Kaydel was a bad person. Ben had had a string of failed first dates and Rey knew why now. Kaydel refused to let him be happy with anyone but her.

“She’s a psycho!” Kaydel wept dramatically, surrounded by friends. And Ben.

“Hospital,” Ben said, pragmatically to Han as he walked Kaydel towards the door. 

Rey wondered how long _that_ would take. Kaydel had ruined the night.

“Hey, little one,” Han said, looking like some kind of ambassador for the bar’s entire clientele that was watching her eat the last of her French fries. “Think you can find your way back to the house?”

He was good with Fae. Didn’t try to discipline her. Didn’t try to impose his culture on hers. He knew the Fae don’t stand for humans and their tricks. Especially pretty ones that hugged their mates and made them think of sex bent over tables.

“Yeah,” Rey said, walking slowly, flashing her favorite human hand signal to the bar on her way out, pretty sure by their affronted gasps that she’d used the right finger.


	8. That took my breath away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **I was walking through icy streams  
>  That took my breath away  
> Moving slowly through westward water  
> Over glacial plains  
> And I walked off you  
> And I walked off an old me  
> Oh me oh my I thought it was a dream**
> 
> Alaska by Amber Run

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read the end note for a teeny trigger warning if you're worried.

Rey turned the corner, trying to ignore the bar patrons still murmuring bad things about her, a curse of excellent hearing. She thought about going back and getting _everyone’s_ names, but then she saw him, his back to the wall, one foot up, looking smug in his human clothes.

“Poe,” Rey acknowledged, as if not shocked to see him there in the dark. They did a proper Fae greeting, a firm hand-to-forearm grasp, but Poe didn’t let go, pulling her close.

“You smell like him,” he said, looking her down, amused and bored at the same time.

“Let go,” Rey said, shaking him off and stepping back. Was he going to try to take her back to the colony against her will? She didn’t know what Leia had authorized. And how long had he been watching her?

“He’ll be right back, he just-.”

“Took that blonde to the hospital? Yeah,” he laughed. “I saw.” At least _someone_ thought it was funny that Kaydel got her just deserts.

Neither of them moved and Rey could tell he was primed, tense, waiting for her to make a run for it.

“I’m going to stay. A little bit longer,” she informed him. She hadn’t given up on this experiment yet. 

His eyebrows raised, as if she had just declared she could take him in a fight, like a challenge. He was older and stronger and could glamour her, but Leia might have forbidden it.

“I don’t think so, Rey,” he said, toying with her, taking a step closer.

Rey swept a leg, cat-like, and he hit the ground with a satisfying "oomph", but as she turned, he was already half up, grabbing a fist of her hair and pulling her completely off her feet, landing on her back.

Ow. 

“I was hoping you’d fight,” Poe said, an inch from her face, licking his bottom lip before biting it.

Her next breath was heady with nectar, like flowers that bloom at night. And Poe was talking in her ear. Something sensual. Right there on the dirty sidewalk, rubbing the back of her head to make sure she was okay.

—————————————

  
  


Rey was cold. Pitch black. Drowning, and she couldn’t swim right. It was those hoofy wedges. A hand grabbed hers and pulled her out, wood hitting her in the stomach.

Poe was laughing and Rey didn’t know how they got down to the docks, but she rolled all the way out of the water on her own, pushing his hands away.

“You,” he was laughing so hard, he couldn’t get it out. “You walked right off the dock,” he said, his fingers walking in the air. “You run around like a two month old when you’re glamoured.”

Shivering, Rey unbuckled her shoes. She couldn’t run away in them and he was going to glamour her again. Leia had probably given him permission if she fought back. She stood and ran barefoot towards the shore but he grabbed her around the waist, flinging her kicking and screaming into the front seats of his boat, smelling of wet rot.

“I’m going to stay!” Rey cried. This was Ben's home. Town was Ben. He didn’t even know she was missing. She tried to reach him with her mind and scream aloud at the same time. “BEN! I’M AT THE DOCK!”

Poe chuckled. Apparently her pain was hilarious. “The hospital is in _Juneau_.” 

Rey didn't know how far that was, but he made it sound like it was far. “Please, Poe,” she said, seriously, squashed in the seat on her back, her legs hanging half off. She missed Ben and Han already. She’d be good. As long as humans were good to her.

His grip lessened, but he was still holding her wrists together, brushing her wet hair out of her face. “It was never going to work, Rey. With that human.”

She wanted to spit in his face. She wanted to tell him that _that human_ was Leia’s halfling son. But his tongue flicked out to lick his lip and she knew he was going to bite it because she did the same thing when she glamoured Ben. So she held her breath.

Poe grabbed her hair to hold her head in place—so she couldn’t headbutt him—and pressed on her chest, pushing all the air out of her lungs by force and bringing his lips down on hers.

She didn’t want to, but her mouth opened, gasping for air, and Poe filled her mouth with his tongue and the scent of night blooms.

————————————-

Leia was leaning her backwards, holding her head under the waterfall, gently, but water was going in her ears.

“Good job, Poe,” she said wiping Rey’s face with a towel. 

Rey was in the big cave. It was morning. And the children were pointing and running around, laughing at the Fae who had to be glamoured home. In human clothes.

“Go tell Luke. He was preparing for another raid,” she instructed Poe.

“A raid?” Rey asked, glaring at Poe’s back. They hadn’t done a raid in months.

Leia bopped her on the head. “Looking for _you_. I’m glad to have you back in one piece,” she said, wrapping Rey in the towel and motioned for her to follow. “You’ve created a bit of a stir between us and the logging camp. Now they’ve upped their security.”

“What happened?” Rey asked. Leia was leading her to her private quarters, tunnels Rey used to call home.

“First Poe went looking for you there and filled a few gas tanks with sugar while he was at it. They’ve got this whole new fleet of machines. We were all very worried when he couldn’t find you. And we didn’t know the name of the man you’d run off to find either. You should always leave a name. Or better yet, not run off. When you have a forest to protect.” She sounded like she’d been planning this scolding for days.

“His name was _Ben Solo_ ,” Rey said, watching Leia stop in her cave doorway, then lift the curtain and continue inside. Maybe little Ben had been a secret. She certainly looked worried.

Leia started fixing Rey a plate of food and looking shaky. And sad. “How. How was he?”

“Wonderful. Tall. Kind eyes. That’s why I couldn’t kill him,” Rey said, taking the plate. But she couldn’t eat. Even if it was her favorite. Figgy jam and toast. Her heart screamed in pain as an image of Ben appeared. Probably just a fancy born of sleep deprivation. He was sitting on Leia’s quilted bed as if it was his own, holding Rey’s letter delicately in his big hands.

His head came up and his eyes focused on her, the air between them suddenly charged and both of them stood, afraid to break eye contact. Because maybe he _was_ in his room and she was seeing him. 

“Leia!” Rey said, pointing, and Ben was yelling for his father. Rey could see Han too, as if he’d walked into the room through the wall. But Leia hadn’t heard Ben shout. The three of them were all waiting for Leia to turn around and Rey smiled when she finally did, looking as young and beautiful as in Ben’s memory, dusting crumbs off on her legs and certainly not expecting to see _them_. 

Han’s bottom lip fell as he inhaled, running a hand sheepishly through his hair, his smile a younger man’s. It was such an unexpected reunion that he briefly looked down to see what he was wearing for it. A navy plaid shirt and jeans. Leia looked at him and Ben, her long lost family, mouth opening to speak, her eyes blinking fast. Then Han reached for Leia at the same time Rey reached for Ben, afraid the connection wouldn’t last, their arms crossing.

“Leia?” Came Luke’s booming voice down the tunnel and when Rey looked to the door, Ben and Han were gone.

_No!_

“Rey. What was _that_?” Leia whispered. But Rey didn’t know, shaking her head, wishing they were still there. Not knowing how to bring them back.

  
Luke called for her again and peeked through the door curtain, all handsome and dimple-chinned and unaware of what he had just interrupted. He smiled when he saw Rey, though. “Ah, the eloper has _returned_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An unwanted kiss!


	9. You are distant but your disposition’s real

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **And I'm feeling like, I'm feeling like a hollow tree  
>  Beneath the bark I've come apart  
> There's nothing left of me  
> My branches keel  
> It's getting harder to imagine how you feel  
> You are distant but your disposition’s real**
> 
> Hollow Tree by Ok Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This song has a glow up about halfway through...and it’s AWESOOOOME
> 
> Trigger note- see the end note.

“Luke,” Rey said, accepting his Fae greeting. His arm was covered in bruises from the recent raids and she wondered how much trouble she was in for inciting them.

Leia was still shaken from seeing her family, but she kept her hands busy, pulling out dry clothes for Rey while Luke spoke. He was trying to get Leia’s support for another raid. They’d have to get it approved by the elders now.

“Rey is home, but we still have to deal with those machines. If we could get past the gate, we could destroy them and the cost alone could put them out of business…”

Rey sat on Leia’s quilted bed and marveled that it had never struck her as strange that Leia slept in a bed while the rest of the Fae didn’t. Her time with Han had changed her preferences. Poor Leia, alone in her bed. Rey was determined that that wouldn’t be her. Or Leia if she could help it.

“But, for now I want Rey in the Hollow Tree,” Luke said, crossing his arms, finally getting to the disciplining. He didn’t look very upset with her. Probably because her disappearance was his excuse to ramp up the war.

The Hollow Tree was usually reserved as a temporary holding area for humans caught with their name on the warrant—or hunters. They couldn’t get out and it gave the elders time to decide what to do with them. 

The hunters always had it the easiest. Stripped naked and told to run home, tripping into paralyzing fairy circles and shot down with Fae arrows, never once making it out. There were a lot of ‘hunting accidents’ in the newspapers. Those caught with their names on the warrant tended to face something far less...quick.

“I wasn’t going to try and escape,” Rey said. Yet. She was too tired.

“ _Escape_?” Luke scoffed. Clearly the wrong term to use. Now he looked even more suspicious.

“During the day she can help me with the children though,” Leia said, as if offering to keep an eye on her.

“Fine. But no leaving, or your man’s going on the warrants,” Luke threatened, jokingly. But that was just his way. He was serious. And Poe probably caught Ben’s first name.

Leia shot her a look of pure fear and somehow Rey put it all together.

When Han made the Fae promises to prevent the logging contract—and failed—they probably put his name in the warrants. But Leia was living with him in secret and had Ben. So she must have agreed to return to the colony in exchange for taking his name off the warrants. 

And by the looks of it, Luke knew all about loving someone he couldn’t. His eyes followed Leia around the room, dotingly. Possessively. She had never noticed it before.

Rey helped Leia teach the children about gardening. There were 23 of them in total. 3 full Fae, 11 halflings, and 9 humans. There weren’t usually many full Fae because they had parents to raise them, but sent them to class sometimes just for socialization. They also grew up so much faster than the others. 

It actually made her get attached to the humans, because they were there so long. One pale, scrawny, redheaded, little boy was hopeless with plants. He put the bulbs in upside down and over-watered everything. And he kept eating the sunflower seeds. It was strangely cute because he was three years older than Rey and he was once her peer. But she could see herself adopting him one day. 

She liked seeing human potential where others didn’t. 

———————————————

Rey couldn’t sleep that night, even though she was exhausted. For one, she’d forgotten how uncomfortable it was to sleep in a leaf nest. Scratchy and buggy. And the door was locked so she couldn’t go curl up with Leia in the cave. Mostly, she felt as empty as the tree itself. Miles from Ben and no warm arm to drape over her. No thoughts to read to put her to sleep. She wondered if she would ever understand what made their connection.

It was dark and she missed electricity. She missed hot water. And a good bubble bath and a big, fluffy towel would feel so good to fight the chill.

She turned on her side because her back and head hurt from Poe’s aggressive capture. The air felt charged. Like in a storm when she would see lightning and smell rain and wait for the crash of thunder, like a prophet. Her back felt warm and she closed her eyes. Ben.

“Are you with me or am I with you?” She asked, quietly. For a moment she felt like she was back in his bed.

But he responded through the bond. _I can’t talk. I’m in jail._

_What?!_ Rey thought, turning to face him, still not touching him. What if it made him disappear again?

Ben was thinking about how he couldn’t even make a creak in his bed because he was on the bottom bunk with a cell mate on the top. But Han hadn’t heard Rey speak last time. So his roommate probably couldn’t hear Rey’s voice. 

_I went to tell my boss about the EcoLog. He accused me of being in league with the activists that were attacking the camp. He called the sheriff, wants to press charges for ‘economic terrorism’. Then the other loggers beat the shit out of me._

Rey couldn’t see him at all to tell what condition he was in, but she could read his memories and there had been a lot of kicking while he was on the ground. 

_She needed names._

_No. You’re not going to that camp,_ he thought, his mind flooding with images of rough sorts of men. Not all of them were crass and violent. But it was more than half. They came to Alaska for work they couldn’t get elsewhere. But the long nights and lack of women made them their worst selves.

Ben hated violence. He could have taken a few workers down with him, but he didn’t. That’s also why he didn’t like it when Rey maimed Kaydel. 

Maybe he had some things to teach _her_.

She wanted to touch him so bad and he read it. 

_Let’s try it. Just. Quietly,_ Ben thought, his hand finding her cheek. Warm and real. Not an apparition. And she couldn’t believe it, leaning closer to find his lips.

She didn’t need light. Running her hands over him, she knew every little bit that distinguished him as Ben, made him different from every other man on the planet. His face and how he could look dazed or tired on the outside but was full of emotion on the inside. His pouty lips and how his jaw would slacken and tighten, making them purse a million different ways and each one meant something. Scared. Mad. Shy. Guilty. Embarrassed. His massive hands and how they touched her now, testing, grateful, worshiping her gently up and down her hips as she silently slid on top of him.

_Shhh._ He thought. 

She couldn’t actually hear his bed springs, just the echo of them in his memory.

Who knew how long it would be until they were together again. Both imprisoned. Or if the bond would last. 

She wanted him _now_.

Sliding his blanket lower, she rubbed herself back and forth over his pants, hoping it was quiet enough. She wanted to make him feel better. And her too. She already felt warmer. Hot even.

Leaning down, she kissed him, positioned him, and took him, bobbing on him, her knees in the leaves. He always hurt at first. But the beginning felt so good in his mind, she didn’t even notice anymore. 

He hated that it hurt her. His size. 

_But sometimes things have to hurt. Then you know how to appreciate the pleasure more._

Ben was trying to breathe, mouth open, mute, while on the inside he was making all of the sounds he usually made. He was practically writhing under her, the bond making them cling to each other with their minds, afraid the other might slip away and they were so close. Climbing together one movement at a time.

For a second Rey thought she was in his room, the next he in hers, and then she tensed, holding him tight with her thighs because Ben couldn’t help it at the end when he jerked and came, his stomach muscles sore and his fist of controlled quiet pressed against the painted concrete wall. She could see it. She was in the room with him and he didn’t care anymore, sitting up to kiss her again, loudly, gasping, still inside her.

His hands kneaded her back and her knees were on the thin mattress sheet now. She had to duck her head to avoid banging it on the bed above. She moved on him again, until she was done. And he could have kept going, but for some reason she worried about hitting the sore spot on the back of her head and thought of Poe.

“He WHAT?!” Ben said aloud, reading her mind. 

Rey fell off his bed and into her leaves, achy, legs spread, and coming down from the high all alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luke loves Leia.


	10. Save tonight and fight the break of dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Well we know I'm going away  
>  And how I wish, I wish it weren't so  
> So take this wine and drink with me  
> Let's delay our misery  
> Save tonight  
> And fight the break of dawn  
> Come tomorrow  
> Tomorrow I'll be gone**
> 
> Save Tonight by Tom Speight

Poe jumped out from the cave wall, startling her. He used to do that when she was younger, from the same spot.

“You’re such an asshole,” Rey said, pretending to be preoccupied with the children. It took forever to get them all clean and ready and fed. And they had _another_ one come in that morning. A 5-year-old. Apparently her human parents drank and smoked with her in the car and a scout nabbed her while she was in the backyard.

“Need any help?” Poe offered, trying a different tactic. 

“No,” Rey said, shortly. It was _his_ fault the connection broke with Ben last night.

He gave her that smug look. The one that he gave her a year ago before she left for her forest. Like _you’ll be back_. And it _was_ hard, living alone after the bustle of the colony. But it was also nice to get a break from Poe—who seemed to think one day she’d wake up and want to make Fae babies with him. He thought every girl wanted him because he was full Fae and unattached.

Leia was giving the new little girl her Fae tattoo, sitting near the waterfall, and talking her through the pricking pain. “You’re so brave. You get to see it after. Just a few more minutes.”

Poe stuck his hand under the falling water and ran it through his hair. “Come find me for lunch,” he said, flicking water in Rey’s face, playfully. Evidently he was too cool to stick around for mundane activities.

“Fat chance,” Rey muttered.

There might have been two or three days when she reached adulthood where she found Poe attractive. And when she was gifted a forest and was going out on her own, he had tried his best to change her mind—namely a dare to kiss him once and see if she wanted to stay. Obviously the forest won.

“Rey, do you know why we tattoo?” Leia said quietly, only loud enough for the two of them and the child to hear.

She shook her head, but guessed. “To remind us humans are dangerous?” That there was a war that had no beginning or end. 

The child winced, looking back and forth between them as Leia gently dabbed at her cheek with a cloth and continued, one drop of inky black at a time with her tool. Tap tap tap.

“No. The real purpose of the tattoo is to keep the Fae with the Fae,” she said, bluntly, reciting some pre-decided colony mandate that Rey had never been privy to. “If the humans can tell who we are, we can’t blend in with them like we’re supposed to. If we can’t blend in with them, we can’t live with them. If we can’t live with them-.”

“We can’t leave the colony,” Rey said, sitting down on a damp rock. She wondered about _all_ the laws now. Whether they were in place for their protection or to keep them there.

“The glamour law I broke?” Rey asked. “Why do we have that one?”

Leia covered the child’s ears with her hands. “The glamour law keeps Fae from realizing the evolutionary purpose of a glamour was for self defense, control, _and_ sex. Rey, there are never going to be hundreds of Fae. But incorporating humans into the mix protects us, boosts our numbers, just enough to let us eke by. They’re our only hope. We need them.”

“Glad to hear it,” a voice said from behind them. 

“Han!” Rey screamed, jumping up to hug him. He was _here_ —at the colony—not a result of her connection with Ben. She could tell by the way he looked around cautiously and stood unevenly on the rocks. He must have traveled by boat and snuck through the forest.

Leia stood up and the child ran off with a one-arrowed cheek. 

_Her_ cheeks were flushed. 

Han kept popping up, taking her by surprise. 

“What are you-.”

“I need to speak to the elders,” Han said. “Ben is in jail. They’re trying to put him away for a long time and I can’t afford the goddamn lawyers,” he said quickly. “We have to do it before they move him somewhere bigger.”

Poe laughed behind him. “And _why_ do you think we’d help _him_ , human?” Poe said sardonically, a long, deadly-sharp knife held loose in his hand, looking personally offended that a townie had made it past their traps and sentries. 

Rey did the math. Han’s visits to the colony 15 years ago would have been before Poe was born.

“Because…” he and Leia looked at each other, and Han could tell Ben’s parentage still needed to stay a secret. “Because he knows the code for the logging camp gate. And he’ll give it to you. If you get him out.” 

It must be true. Han knew better than to lie to the Fae. And that they loved a good bargain.

Poe considered him for a moment, but only to shoot him down. “And getting into the _jail_ is any easier than getting into the logging camp?”

Han shrugged. “It’s a small town. Only two sheriffs. And you look strong, I’m sure you could take them, easy.”

Poe puffed out his chest with pride.

Rey smirked. _Han was good with the Fae._

\------------------------------------------------------------------

Han was ‘escorted’ to the Hollow Tree as Poe and the others devised a raid to liberate Ben from the local jail. Once approved, Rey wished she could tell Ben they were coming, to hold on, but she didn’t know how to make it work. She said his name over and over in her head and pictured his face, but nothing.

After lunch and chores and dinner and a finished child tattoo—that Leia let her attempt...poor kid, one arrow would always look straighter than the other—she went to the Hollow Tree herself, the door locked behind her by the only scout left in the colony tonight, Finn the halfling. “Sorry,” he muttered. 

She was starting to feel like an outcast, until she saw Han’s smile and it looked kind of like Ben’s.

He was sitting on the ground, back to the bark. “Hey, little one. You in here too?”

“Yep,” Rey said, coming closer and sitting next to him with her legs stretched out. It was nice to not be alone tonight. Well, except for...

“I _saw_ Ben last night, through the bond,” Rey said. “I don’t know what started it and I don’t know how to do it again.”

“That’s a nice gift,” Han said. “That could come in handy.”

He was probably thinking about him and Leia and how they were separated with no way to speak to each other without it being intercepted.

“How old are you?” Rey asked. Ben was technically 15, but he became a halfling adult around age 9.

“Ha. 40. Why?” He said, rubbing his face as if he could massage his youth back.

“You just look like the elders. I mean—you still look good. I know Leia thinks so,” Rey added. She wasn’t one to tell someone they looked old. There were a couple colony humans even older-looking than him.

“Did she say that?” he asked. 

There he went. Sounding all whole-hearted again. It hurt more this time, hearing that note in his voice. Because she had been away from Ben for two days and it felt like an eternity. And he’d been away from Leia for 12 years!

“You know how I know you two are meant to be?” Rey said, watching his younger-man’s-smile grow across his face. “Neither of you ever remarried.”

Han coughed. “Well. We never officially married.”

Rey frowned. “What is it with you Solo boys and commitment?”

Han laughed and it echoed. “Maybe it’s because we fall in love with Fae women who will skin us alive if we fuck up.”

Rey laughed. Even though it was true. She’d seen a few skinnings.

—————————————

That night, she blinked her sleep away, begging for the electrical feel of a storm approaching, wishing to talk to Ben and make sure he was free and okay.

But instead she heard the key turn in the lock and the door open, letting in a sliver of moonlight. She turned her head and saw Han walk to the door. And step out. His silhouette played on the wall of the Hollow Tree, and Rey smiled when Leia’s kissed him and pulled him by the hand, heading for her quarters. 

This was their one night to be together. Luke was on a raid and Han would be tossed out in the morning. 

She fell asleep, glad that for one night they were at peace, together, the way things should be. And maybe, if she was lucky, Ben would be there when she woke up.


	11. I crossed the ocean of my mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **I tried to reach you, I can't hide  
>  How strong's the feeling when we dive  
> I crossed the ocean of my mind  
> My wounds are healing with the salt  
> All my senses intensified  
> Whenever you and I, we dive  
> I crossed the ocean of my mind**
> 
> Can We Kiss Forever? By Kina, Adriana Proenza

“Let us out!!” Rey screamed. It was morning and the colony was in an uproar and she could hear shouting reverberating from the caves like ghosts, but no one was unlocking the door for her and Han.

“Over here,” Han said, urgently, bracing his hands together to give her a leg up. There was a natural hole from decay way above their heads. But she might just fit through it.

“Hurry!” he shouted at her, but he was probably just worried about Leia. 

Rey gasped. _Or Ben_.

She stuck her bare foot in his hands and he lifted her easily. Clawing and grappling, she forced her way through the wood, soft like dirt, out the other side where she did a flip to land on her feet in a stumbling crouch.

“I’ll be back with the key!” She shouted over her shoulder, running full speed towards the caves, pine cones stabbing her feet.

It was the raiders. They were back. She spotted Poe amongst them looking unharmed. But, as she weaved through the group, she saw bullet wounds in arms and legs and chests. And they were the lucky ones.

Some raiders were lifeless, tucked into quilts by the women. Their wails fanned her anxiety as she looked for one face, one tall man. Maybe he was sitting. Then she saw Leia, crumpled,—looking inconsolable—crying silently next to a blanketed figure. No no no.

“Noooo!” Rey shrieked, the pitch fresh against the cave walls. Noooooo! They replied eerily, mocking her sorrow.

_Leia’s only son._

_They never got to really meet. With him as an adult with his deep voice and chestnut eyes._

“Ben!” Rey sobbed, grabbing at the quilt but Poe grabbed her roughly and pulled her off, holding her tight to his wall of chest.

_How was she going to tell Han?! How was she going to live without him? He was gentle! How did gentle people die in a war?!_

“It’s not Ben!” Poe was saying, over and over in her ear until it registered. “It’s Luke.”

Rey hugged Poe, genuinely. Three words and all her pain was gone. “Where’s _Ben_?” She mumbled wetly into his neck.

“We were too late. They’d already taken him somewhere,” he said, sounding disappointed himself, but he picked her up and carried her away from the rows of the dead. So many. And they couldn’t afford to lose one. And what if they lost more? Some of their injuries would get infected. Some of them were bleeding badly.

“It’s all my fault,” she said, her vision blurring. “They went to the logging camp because I disappeared.”

Poe set her down near the waterfall. “Your disappearance was the spark we needed to go after them. We’ll get the gate code and destroy the machines. This is just a setback.”

He left her there. She was healthy and she didn’t need him as much as the colony. 

Rey should have gone to let Han out, or comfort Leia, but she couldn’t move, rocking back and forth staring into the water, because there were bodies everywhere if she moved her eyes. And she didn’t want to know who else the colony had lost.

She felt the electric pull, her hair practically standing on end, and she looked around for Ben, still breathing raggedly, but he was nowhere. Raiders were washing their hands in the water, the pool turning a ruddy brown of blood and dirt. The children were crying.

_Rey!_

Her heart pounded as she scanned the main cavern. He was here somewhere, with the bond. She could read his thoughts and he was worried about her.

_Ben!_

She saw herself in his mind's eye and turned back to the waterfall, reaching in and finding his shirt, dry, beneath the pounding water. As surreal as the moment was, she simply pulled him through and kissed him, like a welcome. Ben. Here, in the caves. His front dry and his back wet. His feet uneven on the rocks, and she felt the electricity ebb away until it was just them. Him hunching over her, pressing her to the misty wall, confused, but trying to stop her shaking, whispering to her, but she couldn’t understand, nothing audible over the water.

“Are you with me or am I with you?” He said, louder, his eyes closed.

Did it matter where they were as long as they were together?

Rey couldn’t speak, just buried her face in his shirt and let him hold her the way that felt natural and good, until her mind caught up with the present, jarring and bizarre, and she remembered. “I need to let Han out.”

———————————————

When Rey returned with Han, Ben was sitting with Leia, holding her hand, which seemed to be helping with the loss of her twin. And if they were doing that, publically, then Leia was no longer afraid to claim him. Her jealous, vengeful brother couldn’t dredge up past wrongs. Couldn’t curse the Solo line. 

The Fae were whispering about Ben, but he couldn’t hear them with his weak, human hearing. Finn and a few others had seen her pull him out of the waterfall, and their tone was growing almost reverent. The Fae had a lot of superstitions when it came to moving water. 

It didn’t take long for the word to spread and the elders to convene, interested in the day's events. A mixture of mourning, anguish, fear for the future, and thinly-veiled curiosity. Usually the main cave was used for these gatherings, but it was occupied by the injured and fallen today. So they assembled in the forest above, the trees full of squawking familiars bearing witness to the sight of the colony above ground all at once. Even those who lived nearby had come.

“Would you be willing to give us the gate code in exchange for asylum?” One elder asked. Holdo was one of Rey’s favorites. Progressive. Tactful. Less bloodthirsty. 

The colony murmured. _Adult_ humans never became members, only _young_ humans. Ones who could be raised right.

Ben glanced at Rey. “How about a bargain? I’ll give it to you if you promise no one is harmed. Just the machines.”

“A bargain it is,” Holdo said, looking pointedly at the raiders. They couldn’t go back on a bargain. They’d have to comply, whether they wanted to or not.

One elder, Maz, who was approaching 273 years old and looked nearly as old as Han, raised a finger and motioned for Ben and Rey to come closer and describe their bond. She listened carefully, nodding along as they explained how it started in the woods and grew from thoughts and dreams to communication and ‘meetings’.

She smiled, her large, round eyes crinkling into slits as she looked into their eyes, right up close to their faces.

“You’re Leia’s boy? And father a human?” She said. Though no one had told her and half the crowd began discussing him again. “I think I know how this happened. You are a halfling. But that doesn’t mean you can’t glamour when you’re afraid.”

“What?” Ben said.

Rey shook her head. Ben had never done a glamour. Well, maybe just a little. _The taste of honeysuckle on her tongue._

“ _Think_ ,” Maz said to her, tapping her on the head. “There’s a moment in your memory, walking through your forest, when you heard a radio. On the first day. Ben,” she faced him next, “you turned and saw her and she pulled a knife to kill you. Rightly so, you were in her forest with that monstrous machine. Then, it’s as though you both went about your day. Your memories pieced things together so you wouldn’t notice the gap.”

“What are you _saying_?” Ben asked.

“I think you two ran into each other the first day and glamoured each other. Only possible with a Fae female and a strong, half-human, half-Fae bloodline. I think you bridged your minds. Then forgot about it.”

Rey tried to remember the first day. She had seen him from afar, not up close. It was raining that afternoon. She didn’t talk to him until two days later.

“Ah. See? The rain washed away the glamour,” Maz said, as if she’d read the memory.

“How do we remember it?” Rey asked, though she already knew the answer.

“No getting it back now,” Maz said. “Nothing left but the gift.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ;) Don't worry. I remember their first real meeting. 
> 
> Double glamour!! oh shiiit.


	12. When you’re reckless in the summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Honeysuckle, high in the tree  
>  You let the world live under you  
> Like you're some good royalty  
> No one can touch you  
> When you're reckless in the summer, that heat  
> You let him wonder**
> 
> Honeysuckle by Greyson Chance, Julian Lamadrid

Rey climbed down the ladder carefully, jumping past the last few rungs. It wasn’t safe to be in her tree house with a storm coming. It was the tallest tree in the forest and she could _feel_ the lightning approaching. Or maybe she could hear the thunder, such a low rumble it was almost imperceptible.

She decided to walk near the river. There had been more human boats than ever this month and she wanted to make sure the loggers weren’t thinking of setting foot in her forest. She had her knife, just in case.

There were animal trails near the water that made the trek easier. Deer, elk, and moose made her roads, but sometimes she’d find the odd paw print. Bears, wolves, cougars. 

BeeBee flew overhead, his shadow startling her for a moment and she bit her lip, instinct. But he was just looking for his lunch. Mice and bugs and- _what was that noise?_

Rey crouched and listened, waiting for the sound again. 

“Yeah, it’ll slow me down a bit, but I’m not going to sit in a giant, metal lightning rod,” a man laughed. There must be at least two of them. Humans.

A crackly voice answered, way too loud. “Stay away from the river too.” A radio. So one human. She held her knife up, steeling herself. This was her duty. For the colony. She saw the machine with the radio, only twenty feet away, surrounded by a dozen trees it had already felled. No!

Suddenly, a man turned. Big. Broad. He had been leaning on the same tree she was peering around. She bit her lip, their eyes locking. Hopefully she’d done it in time. The glamour. 

He cursed, pushing her to the ground, but she held the knife tight, hitting him with more and more but it didn’t seem to be doing anything, like he was immune. He was huge, so maybe it took a lot? Everything about him was big, his chest and hands and he was tall. But his face was long and it reminded her of someone. 

Finally, he fell to his knees—like he was supposed to seconds ago—and she breathed a sigh of relief. Inhaling, her eyes fluttered. Because he smelled _amazing_. 

How could she _ever_ consider killing him? 

She raised herself up on her knees in front of him and they stared at each other, neither speaking. They didn’t need to speak. They understood each other perfectly. There was a universal language in all creatures, open to them now.

Their eye contact broke when they both glanced down, just a few inches. He had a wide mouth and full lips, parting slightly as he breathed her in. She could tell exactly what he was thinking, either from the _thing_ between them or just his expression.

Waiting. For permission.

She reached for his face and that was all he needed. His mouth hit hers and they pulled at each other, reckless, desperate. Honest.

This was the way things were supposed to be. Not a _dare_ or a _maybe_. Just electricity sizzling and can’t get enough fast enough and _ugh_ strong hands pushing her to the tree, lips on hers and tongue on hers and him pressing his want against hers.

He ripped himself free of his clothing and pushed—inside of her—pressing her hips down until their bodies were flush. It would have hurt but he bit her shoulder to distract her from _down there._

Thunder cracked and her back was to a tree. Not safe. She pulled on his hair hard and he laid down in the dirt and sappy pine needles. Still straddling him, she chased the friction he had started, before the thunder, but it wasn’t fast enough for him. He pushed her off and spun, ripping her to her hands and knees and joining with her from behind.

That felt good.

He pumped quickly, primal-like, and the palms of her hands slid out from under her more than once, he was filling her so hard, his hands pulling her, dipping between her legs until she was crying it felt so good, her face in the dirt and her backside in the air.

They both jumped when the lightning struck closer, over the river, and she bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. 

There was a fresh wave of him, his smell. Fear caused it. _Amazing._ Honeysuckle. Filling her nose and mouth and she knew what it was and it didn’t make sense, but she was so high on it, it didn’t matter. Human could do whatever he wanted. He was magic. He was perfect. He was going to come and she wanted him to do that. Over and over as many times as he wanted. Wherever he wanted. She wanted him to be happy and satisfied and stay with her.

But he was doing it again. Waiting. Even though he was so close she could feel his pain. His hand moved on her--and she was wet down there, but he could read her mind and he could tell she hadn’t finished yet--so he slowed down his thrusts. 

She wanted to tell him to keep doing that, but she didn’t need to. He just _knew_ it.

  
  
It started raining, but it was welcome, she was hot. It was revitalizing. The water trickled down her scalp and face and she got back up on her hands pushing herself backwards onto him, back and forth until she arched, her face to the sky, and he looked up too. She didn’t see him, just knew it. He couldn’t wait anymore, spilling inside her and _that_ was what she needed, following him. 

Lightning spiked and they winced, the thunder the sound of their own aftershocks as they separated and fell to the earth, gasping. The rain was pounding now and Rey swiped her hair out of her eyes, looking around for him. He was just there a second ago. 

Why was she in this part of the forest?

Oh, right, she had heard a radio. Too dangerous to investigate now. She’d come back when the storm calmed down. 

Why was she sore?

She must have slipped and fallen pretty hard. She needed to be more careful, out here on her own.


	13. A safe place somewhere in the woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **We're all falling and we need a place to hide  
>  A safe place somewhere in the woods  
> Where we can start the fire  
> All we know is that would be our home  
> We will stay 'til the break of dawn**
> 
> The Woods by Hollow Coves

2 years later...

“Hux, have you seen Bo?” Rey asked as he ran by, heading towards the school/house, a flash of red hair.

“He’s right behind me, Mom,” he said, turning to walk backwards, his knobby, 9-yr-old knees knocking together.

Sure enough, Bo was lagging. No excuse for it, since his legs were already longer than Hux’s.

“Forgot my arrows,” Bo said, carrying his child-sized bow and quiver. They were just toys to him. He had never seen the effects of war.

When Han and Ben joined the colony, everything changed. They built the school—that was also the big house—with running water and solar power. 

Their best idea had actually been to forgive warrants in exchange for favors from the humans. It was extraordinary what humans would donate to prevent a Fae punishment. And how many humans and Fae chose to stay when the colony had all the comforts of town. Tattoos were optional and glamour laws were a thing of the past.

“Bo, Hux, tell Dad to meet me at the tree house,” Rey said, feeling nervous. 

Today was the day. And she had worked so hard to keep her thoughts a surprise from Ben. 

He had also been preoccupied lately. Selling the house and bar in town—both under Han’s name—to purchase the old logging camp, just to make sure it remained vacant. It was hard for him to do things like that when he was technically a wanted man. But he always found a way. There were several lawyers with warrants wishing for forgiveness.

“Okay, Mom,” they said, together. They’d become inseparable as Bo grew to lap Hux in maturity. He was more than a halfling—and more than a Fae. Brighter and kinder, with Ben’s dark hair and Rey’s hazel eyes. Some kind of...gift. 

And his method of conception wasn’t exclusive to her and Ben. It had worked for others too. And today, she hoped it would work for them again.

She scaled the tree house ladder but didn’t go inside, instead climbing further up the branches. Because in order for a halfling to glamour, they needed to be startled. Rey was going to take a page out of Poe’s book and leap out at Ben when he came to find her in their getaway spot.

This could have worked years ago if she had learned how to guard her thoughts, but it took time. They were so in tune. She also had to wait for Han and Leia to return from their honeymoon. Someone had to come hose them off in a couple of hours to de-glamour them.

She saw him coming, his shoulders rolling out of his suspenders in anticipation.  _ Ugh _ . _He was still as handsome as the day they met—the second day they met?_ And he grinned to himself, hearing the thought. 

Climbing the ladder, creaking under his weight, he reached the deck and peeked inside. “What are you up to?”

Rey snickered to herself as he came back out on the deck, walking right beneath her, circling the house, his eyes on the ground.

She bit her lip. 

And jumped.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and commenting. I love all the support this very niche story got. Being added to the Hidden Gens collection and having a gifted moodboard blew my mind. It really kept me motivated to finish the story!!


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